Controversies over Pooram crisis refuse to die down

Thrissur: Political controversies continued on Monday over the unprecedented disruption of rituals and schedules due to alleged police highhandedness during this edition of Pooram which concluded on Saturday.

UDF and BJP are blaming police and LDF govt for the crises and for taking the sheen off the annual festival eagerly awaited by millions.

LDF, however, continued to blame police officers for precipitating the crises.

Congress leader and Thrissur UDF candidate K Muraleedharan alleged that the crisis was precipitated as part of a deal between BJP and CPM, and to create a socio-political ambience favourable to actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, the NDA nominee.

On the reported govt move to transfer police commissioner Ankit Asokan, Muraleedharan said, “Blaming the commissioner alone for the Pooram fiasco is unacceptable. Who had given a free reign to the commissioner to indulge in such mindless highhandedness must be found out. No police officer will engage in such actions unless he gets a green signal from the higher-ups. There must be a judicial inquiry to find who perpetrated the crisis. Shifting a commissioner for a few days will not avert the recurrence of such incidents. UDF will win the Thrissur seat anyway but if the BJP nominee comes second, the full responsibility will lie with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who handles the home department,” he said.

Though Gopi denied a ‘BJP-CPM deal’, he too said that the commissioner alone cannot be blamed. “How can they act against the commissioner alone when he was only enforcing orders from above? Let there be an independent inquiry to find those responsible,” said Gopi.

Meanwhile, Thiruvambady Devaswom officials denied Gopi’s reported claim that they invited him during the crisis. Gopi’s secretary had called the devaswom secretary over phone and had connected to Gopi, they said.

LDF candidate V S Sunilkumar refuted allegations of a deal between LDF and NDA, and said Muraleedharan is making a ‘foolish statement’ after realizing that he was losing ground. “He is trying to gain the votes of secular people. Some are propagating that the Thrissur Pooram crisis is similar to Sabarimala controversies. What is the similarity between Sabarimala and Thrissur Pooram? he asked.

Sunilkumar conceded that the commissioner had taken some wrong actions during the Pooram. “But I can’t say it was part of a conspiracy, as I don’t have evidence,” he said.

CPI leader and revenue minister K Rajan said the decision to transfer the commissioner and assistant commissioner was taken based on complaints from the devaswom and media. When pointed out that higher officials ADGP Ajithkumar and DIG Ajeetha Begum were present in Thrissur when the crisis was snowballing, Rajan said, “There will be detailed inquiries into the whole episode and whoever is responsible for the situation, either by commission or omission, will have to face action.”